My Apprenticeship to Uncle Jiu: I Was a Warlord in the Republic of China

Seeing Simu Daoist Jiang Li was stunned, he then reacted and asked, "Excuse me, who are you looking for?"

Seeing that the person who opened the door was not his senior brother, he asked, "Does Taoist Priest Lin Jiu of Maoshan live here?"

Jiang Li still pretended to be stupid and asked, "Who are you and what do you want to do with my master?"

Taoist Simu finally reacted and said, "So you are my nephew. Your master is my senior brother. You can call me Uncle Simu."

Jiang Li then smiled and opened the door, saying, "It turns out to be Uncle Simu. I have never seen you before, so please forgive me if I am offended."

Simu smiled and said "No wonder," then he rang the bell and walked into the charity cemetery. Several zombies behind him also jumped into the yard.

It was the first time that Jiang Li saw a zombie, so he observed it carefully from the side. As soon as he got closer, he smelled a faint stench of corpse, fortunately it was not strong, but it still made people reluctant to get close.

Uncle Jiu came out at this time, welcomed Simu in and sat down, saying, "Junior brother, why did you think of coming here? Aren't you going to continue looking for opportunities?"

Simu smiled bitterly and said, "Brother, please stop mocking me. I have figured it out now. In this Dharma Ending Age, why should I still seek the way to immortality? It is more reliable to earn some money and accumulate some good karma in a stable manner than to seek those illusory opportunities."

After hearing what Simu said, Uncle Jiu immediately said, "That's right. The most important thing for your corpse-carrying lineage is to have a foothold and a stable route. Otherwise, how can you get business and accumulate good karma?"

Simu said, "Brother, you are right, but how can we cultivators like you give up the path to immortality without trying? It's not that we have made up our minds to give up after years of fruitlessness."

"I have already thought about it. When the time comes, I will find a deserted mountain to open a dojo, find a suitable route to walk a few times to gain some reputation, and then take in two apprentices to serve me. This will make my life worthwhile."

Having said that, Uncle Jiu still saw the unwillingness in his eyes, but he didn't point it out.

Instead, he called Jiang Li and Wencai to introduce them to Simu, "Junior brother, let me introduce you. This is my eldest disciple Wencai, this is the third disciple Jiang Li, and there is also a second disciple who is a registered disciple and helps his aunt run the store in Renjia Town."

Wen Caihe then said to the two of them, "I haven't met your Uncle Simu yet."

Jiang Li and Wencai then performed the salute as juniors and said respectfully, "Junior greets uncle-master."

Simu bowed and took out four silver dollars to give to the two men as a gift. He then took out two silver dollars and gave them to Uncle Jiu to pass on to Qiu Sheng.

Then he looked at the two of them and said with satisfaction, "Congratulations, Senior Brother. In just a few years, you have established a Taoist temple and accepted three disciples. I think you will be able to carry forward our Maoshan in the near future."

Uncle Jiu smiled bitterly and said, "Alright, alright, you don't know the situation of my lineage yet. We are just doing thankless work. It's ok to make ends meet, but it's hard to really expand Maoshan."

Simu also sighed and said, "Forget it, forget it. Today we are reunited as brothers and sisters and we won't talk about these things. But what I saw when I entered the door just now, could it be two spirit beasts?"

Uncle Jiu said with a smile on his face, "It's because my third apprentice has been pestering me. As a master, I have to do everything I can to get it for him. Brother, you don't know that they have to eat two or three kilograms of food a day. Brother, I am under a lot of pressure."

Although he said so, his expression betrayed his inner pride. He looked at his senior brother's proud expression but did not expose him. Instead, he stood up and looked at the two spirit chickens with interest.

Then he said, "These two spirit chickens are quite strong, but why are their fur so sparse that they look like bald men."

Uncle Jiu looked even more proud as he said, "I was lucky enough to kill a centipede monster that was 100 years old. I used its body as medicine and trained these two ordinary chickens into spiritual beasts."

"It's not that the centipede spirit is very poisonous, which is why they lost all their hair. I think it won't take long for them to grow back."

Simu said in amazement, "Brother, you are so lucky. This hundred-year-old centipede is extremely difficult to deal with. I guess it must have taken a lot of effort."

Uncle Jiu smiled and said, "That's right. At first the villagers asked for help saying it was a poisonous snake that had turned into a spirit, so we didn't bring all the right weapons. But later we asked a few villagers to help, and it was easily solved."

When Simu heard that he could kill the enemy without any suitable weapons, he naturally praised him.

Seeing that the time was almost up, Uncle Jiu asked Wencai to cook some more dishes and took out his treasured wine to entertain Taoist Simu. Although there was no big fish or meat, a large spoonful of scrambled eggs with lard and bacon, paired with a little wine, was considered a good meal in that era.

After lunch, Simu went back to his room to rest, because he was driving corpses at night and needed to rest during the day.

After washing the dishes with Wencai, Jiang Li came to Uncle Jiu and asked, "Master, what did you say to Uncle Simu before about looking for opportunities and giving up the immortal path?"

Uncle Jiu sighed and said, "Your uncles and I have all been practicing in Mount Mao since we were young. We have always believed that we can become immortals if we practice hard."

"But as I got older, I couldn't accept the truth. Later, I never gave up and always wanted to travel to more places to find out if there was any inheritance left by my ancestors, so as to get closer to the path of immortality."

"But after a long time, I gave up. However, your Uncle Simu was unwilling to give up. It was not until last year when I established a temple here and sent him a message that he let go of his obsession and prepared to find a place to settle down."

Jiang Li understood now, but he asked again, "Master, have you ever thought of other methods, such as forcing ascension with great merit?"

Uncle Jiu said, "It's not that easy. Our ancestors of Maoshan have spent their lives slaying demons and eliminating evil spirits. Except for the Three Mao Zhenjuns, the others ended up being just messengers in the underworld. They are far from becoming immortals."

Jiang Li became interested after hearing this and said, "Master, if one day someone can increase the grain yield per mu to several thousand kilograms, do you think such a feat can lead to an ascension through merit?"

Uncle Jiu was stunned and said, "What nonsense are you talking about? How could such a thing happen?"

Then he continued, "If there really is such a person, even if he doesn't become an immortal, he would at least be a judge in the underworld after his death. Unfortunately, this is simply impossible."

Uncle Jiu thought Jiang Li was joking, but he was the only one who knew that this was completely feasible. Maybe this was the path to enlightenment for him.

Seeing that Jiang Li no longer asked any questions, Uncle Jiu first asked Jiang Li to practice boxing for a while, and then read some Taoist scriptures and learn to recognize words.

Taoist Simu rested here for a day and left in the evening because he had agreed on a time with the customer's family. If he missed the time, it would damage his reputation and it would be difficult for him to get work in the future.

After sending Simu away, the charity cemetery returned to peace. As usual, Uncle Jiu occasionally went out to help people with feng shui and exorcise evil spirits, and earn some money to supplement the family income.